- Whether producing volatile tech-house award winners or conceptual works based on limitation, Gabriel Ananda is one of the most consistent and identifiable producers in techno. We've not heard from him since last November's Kirschplunder & Jasmin Tea with regular collaborator Dominik Eulberg, but these two scorchers for Platzhirsch reveal he's hardly been idle.
Like the massive 'Doppelwhipper', 'Mahatma Regatta' delivers a similarly rough-shod blend of percussive rattle, sampled clutter and sharp electro-tinged pummel. Rapid woodpecker taps segue into dirtier machine gun volleys, a preceding whoomp ensures the drums hit hard, and blinding strobe patterns cause further confusion. Ananda employs a wealth of rave tricks to dramatise his work—his breaks ramp into (subtly) explosive crescendos, and his rhythms are expertly programmed—but they're delivered in a kooky, idiosyncratic manner which makes them all the more endearing.
'Rattamahatta' is even stronger, a stripped down rhythm track colored only by a dark humming bass pulse. Like his Bassmaschinchen experiments, the action is all in the low end, and the drums work the kind of subtle magic frequently found in early Tresor productions. Ananda is more restless however, and 'Rattamahatta' shifts and squirms, the pulse becoming a ceaseless distorted growl while the clang of a metal cup on prison bars provides a competing rhythm. While we wait for a Volume 3, these two big tracks for big rooms will have to do.
TracklistA Mahatma Regatta
B Rattamahatta